Howard County Says Their Water is Safe to Drink

NewsWest 9 had received phone calls from residents in Howard County about a section in the Big Spring Herald a while back. It said that Howard County's Water District 1 had violated certain reporting requirements. So, it said the state couldn't guarantee that your water was safe to drink. We finally got it all cleared up by Howard County officials Wednesday.

"If it's unsafe water we will be on top of it, to publicize boiling the water or some kind of other procedure to before drinking it. And that's the safest you can get. Because, right now we're both good, and the water's still safe," said John Wayne Metcalf, the Public Utilities Director in Coahoma.

He said the city got a letter from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality this summer about violating reporting requirements. But Metcalf explained that those violations Coahoma and Howard County's Water District 1 got are just mistakes.

"I feel a little dumb, in a way because, after reading over a lot of that stuff, it was black and white, I knew then that I should of been sending them in," explained Metcalf.

He added that the public shouldn't be worried about their water. Even though the letter said the reports haven't been filed since 2004, he said he has been keeping track the whole time.

"We've been taking the residuals, it's like chlorine residuals, we took the residuals and we write it down everyday, and I just wrote it into the reports, and we had the reports, but I just failed to send them into Austin," said Metcalf.

He said he has sent those reports to Austin and heard back from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality. They have now given him the okay since he sent in all his reports. And from what we can tell, the water in Howard County appears to be up to par.